Park Specialists' Newsletter
Fifth Grade Edition - First Trimester
First Trimester Recap
From Park's Art Instructor - Mrs. Ovadje
What’s happening in Mrs. Ovadje’s art room??
This year in art, the students are learning about different kinds of art from “Around the World”. We have created:
Passports
Zentangle + Zendalas
Clay Alebrijes, or mythical animals from Mexico
Primary Pumpkins by mixing 2 primary colors together, and
Fiber Art - Weaving for Native American Heritage Month
From Park's Librarian - Mrs. Hanneman
New this year:
Our Library/Tech Time rotations are a little different this year. Instead of rotating each color cycle, we will be staying with the same schedule for a unit and then switching. For example, two red days of TechTime and then two red days of Library. Or, six blue days of Library followed by six blue days of TechTime. As such, not all second grade students have been in Library instruction for some of these units at the time of this publication. Yet by the end of December, all students will have participated in these lessons.
Fifth graders started the year with learning more about Digital Citizenship, particularly the difference between the sharing of personal versus private information. Afterwards, students reviewed their knowledge of navigating Destiny Quest, the library database. In addition, students were introduced to the Maud Hart Lovelace Book Nominees for this school year; more information is provided below. To reignite their love of learning, students participated in a Genre Personality quiz, which determined which genre they would enjoy reading. Some students were surprised by the results whereas others received confirmation of what types of book they prefer to read. Finally, students were historians as they tried to determine what actually happened in Plymouth during the first Thanksgiving by reviewing primary sources on a website.
Minnesota Student Book Choice Award
Students who have read at least three of the Minnesota Student Book Choice titles will be able to vote for their favorite book at the end of March. The votes from Park Elementary will be tallied and sent into the state headquarters for compilation with all of the other student votes around the state. The student choice book award recipient will be announced on April 25. Encourage your child to participate.
Check out Park’s FREE e-books.
Works on any internet connected device: http://www.tbcjr.com/ (longer books for Grades 3-up) Username: park423. Password: login
http://www.tumblebooks.com/library/ (shorter books Grades K-5th grade)
Students can listen to books while following along with the text at a variety of levels. Check it out!
Thank you for encouraging the children you know and love to read -- it's an important lifelong skill!
You’re invited to the Park Elementary Book Fair!
When: During Winter Conferences, 2/13 and 2/14
Times TBD
Where: Park Elementary Foyer
From Park's Technology Integration Instructor - Mr. Durheim
The primary focus of TechTime is for students to develop their Computational Thinking skills and apply them to problem solving and coding.
The TechTime/Library rotation has changed a little for the 2019-2020 school year. Instead of rotating between the two classes every color rotation, classes will visit the same class for 5 or 6 color cycles and then rotate for an equivalent number of cycles. That means some classes have met many times and some have only met a few times so far. Please visit the NEW TechTime website to learn more about specific activities, websites, and learning goals. The site is continually updated as we progress through units.
UP NEXT: During the next rotation, students will continue learning about coding and participate in the Hour of Code with students around the world.
Keep up with what’s happening at Park by viewing our multimedia Daily Announcements. During the first trimester, fourth- and fifth-grade classes have been taking turns creating our Daily Announcements. All of the videos are available on Park’s website.
Keyboarding
We are in our third year of keyboarding as a part of the specialist rotation schedule. The program is self-paced and students progress at their own speed. Classes meet for 30 minutes every four school days.
We are continuing to use a program called Typing Quest. This program teaches students to type on a computer keyboard and builds their skills so they can more efficiently use a computer. Students began with TypeTastic! games which help students to learn where keys are located on the keyboard and also develop fine-motor mousing skills. Next, students move on to Keyboarding Kickstart, Typing Quest Jr., or Typing Quest.
Some Typing Quest lessons and games are available free to home users at typingquest.com/personal. Many other typing games are available online for extra practice outside of school. You may find several on the Park Elementary “For Students” webpage. DanceMatTyping is a favorite of many students.
From Park's Phy Ed Educators - Mrs. Hahn & Mrs. Juergensen
Mrs. Hahn and Mrs. Juergensen are having a great start to the school year. New to Park, but not new to our district is Mrs. Juergensen. She taught 7 years at West Elementary before moving to Park this year.
A typical day in the Physical Education class begins with a fitness warm-up activity. These activities vary from cardiovascular, muscular strength/endurance, and/or flexibility. The purpose of these activities is to increase the students’ awareness and level of fitness. After the warm-up, students have a lesson that focuses on the skills that will help them to be successful in the games in a unit. The students will then participate in an age – appropriate game using the skill(s) practiced in that lesson.
Units covered first trimester:
*Soccer skills
*Football skills
*Fitness tests
*Table Ball and Gaga Ball
*Volleyball
*Bowling
With the coming of snow and the need for boots, please help your child to remember to bring his/her tennis shoes on phy-ed days.
A big thank you for all your help in making “Help Forky Slam Dunk the Junk” activity a big success! It was great to see how much trash students picked up at Park Elementary and in our community. Thank you to all that sent in pictures as well. The bulletin board is looking awesome!
Tips for Raising Heart-Healthy, Active Children:
The American Heart Association recommends kids 6-17 years old should get at least 60 minutes per day of moderate- to vigorous- intensity of physical activity a day.
Go to the grocery store together. Learn more about reading nutrition labels and make it fun for your child. Staples in your kitchen should be 100 percent whole wheat or grains, low-fat dairy products, poultry, fish and nuts.
When your child gets home from school, give him healthy snack options such as whole grain crackers and string cheese, hummus dip and vegetables, Greek yogurt with apple slices, nuts and dried fruit.
From Park's Music Teachers - Mrs. Hoeft & Ms. Newton
In 5th grade music we have continued our work on recorder, reviewing what students learned in fourth grade, as well as learning new songs. Students can play B, A, G, C, and D, and they have also learned a new note, low E. Songs using our new note (Low E) include Skin and Bones, Who Has Seen the Wind, and It’s Raining. Learning recorder helps students to become more skilled at reading music and improves their hand-eye coordination. We play songs from the recorder book in class with a CD accompaniment, as well as additional songs. Students also enjoy making up their own melodies using notes that they know to fit the rhythm of the words in a poem or chant, like “Quiet in the Halls.” Fifth graders do a challenge activity called Recorder Karate, in which they can earn “belts” by playing progressively more difficult songs (white belt, yellow, orange, etc.). To earn their first belt (white), they have to play “Hot Cross Buns.”
Other instruments we have played in music are the drums and the xylophones. We reviewed Land of the Silver Birch and Rockin’ Robin on the Orff instruments, favorite songs from fourth grade. We also played a standard blues pattern while singing Boogie Woogie Ghost. Students practiced sixteenth notes while making up melodies and playing along to Rocky Mountain. We have a full set of Orff instruments, (including xylophones, metallophones, and glockenspiel) in each room so every child can participate as we play together.
The students love to sing in music class. Songs we have sung this year include favorites from last year as well as new ones; Shimmy Shimmy, Do A Deer, Austrian Yodeler, Kookaburra, This Land is Your Land, America the Beautiful, America America, and Fifty Nifty. We have been challenging students to sing and play more difficult pieces using harmonies and layered rhythms.
Much of our rhythmic work this trimester has focused on sixteenth note patterns. The students enjoy the success of being able to play well together in a group, and have also begun to experiment individually with making up their own patterns using body percussion and instruments. Pieces which focused on sixteenth notes included the chants Quiet in the Halls and Bumps in the Night.
We are so pleased that many of our fifth graders have signed up for band and choir. Playing or singing in a large group provides an advanced level of difficulty and enjoyment that is not possible in a smaller classroom setting. We invite you to attend the band and choir performances available throughout the school year.
From Park's STEM Specialist - Mrs. McDowell
Throughout all of the STEM projects students are continually following the Engineering Design Process to ask questions, plan, create, make observations and improve their designs along the way. Check out what your child/student has been up to these last couple of months in STEM!
Crow Tools! In September, 5th Grade STEM students learned that crows are very clever animals. They are capable of taking objects from their surroundings to create tools that help them retrieve food from hard to reach places. Crows use their external structures (like their beak and claws) to help them achieve this task. To relate, 5th graders were asked to design and create a tool-like structure that could retrieve 3 Cheerio pieces from out of the bottom of a water bottle in the fastest amount of time possible. While it may appear so…this was no easy feat. Within their groups of 3 and 4, students were challenged with the ultimate collaborative task and were only allowed to use 1 hand to create the tool; this is because a crow would only be able to use 1 foot to do so. Many agreed that this part of the mission was the most difficult. Leading up to their tool making, each student worked with a partner to research a different animal. They were asked to find 4 external/internal structures on that particular animal and report on how each structure helps the animal in their habitat. They found some very intriguing bits of information and created beautiful posters to showcase each animal!
Most classes found that a sturdy structure with a sticky base was the way to go.
Simple Machines! In mid-October 5th Grade STEM students began their simple machines unit. They began the unit learning about simple machines through self-discovery. After spending a couple of sessions exploring, manipulating and discussing how simple machines work, students were given a task that focused mainly on using the “pulley” system. They were directed to build a contraption that would transport as many “people” (aka washers) safely down a gondola-style zip line. A friendly little competition ensued and students contended to see who could get the most riders on their gondola and/or the fastest time down the line. After several test runs and observations students discovered what character traits a successful and safe gondola had, and also made the connection that the more riders one had on their gondola, the faster it went. The fastest time down the zip line was 1.50 seconds with 26 “riders.”
Park Elementary School
Email: dan.olberg@isd423.org
Website: isd423.org/park-elementary/
Location: 100 Glen Street Southwest, Hutchinson, MN, United States
Phone: (320) 587-2837
Twitter: @parkelem